Welcome to Bimmerfest -- The #1 Online Community for BMW related information! Please enjoy the discussion forums below and share your experiences with the 200,000 current, new and past BMW owners. The forums are broken out by car model and into other special interest sections such as BMW European Delivery and a special forum to voice your questions to the many BMW dealers on the site to assist our members!

E46 (1999 - 2006) The fourth generation 3 Series (E46 chassis) was introduced in 1999 and set the standard for engineering and performance during it's years of production including being named to Car & Driver's 10 best list every one of those years! ! -- View the E46 Wiki

In my opinion, LED Angel eyes are a little too harsh and too bright, unless you want to use them as daytime running lights.
In an effort to get a more subtle, OEM look, I dimmed and tinted my LED Angel Eyes.

I installed an adjustable dimmer on my EAS Auroras to tone them down so they would look good at dusk and at night.
I don't use them during the day. (BTW, these are the new, 15% brighter v1.1 Auroras.)

To install the dimmer, I spliced into the main power wire between the relay and the main power source. I wired them to come on with the fog lights and I do not use the wire that fades them on and off with the interior lights.

The rheostat, plastic "project box", and the knob are all from Radio Shack. The cost of all three parts was less than $10.

Installing the dimmer was easy...

- Just drill three holes in the project box.
- Solder the wires to the rheostat.
-Assemble the project box and attach it to the firewall. ( I attached it with HD velcro. )

I also "tinted" my LED Angel Eyes to reduce the individual LED, "pearl necklace" look. Auroras use a pattern that is moulded into the lens to diffuse the light and help blend the individual LEDs. However, that pattern is only on the front of the lens, leaving the sides of the lens clear. When viewed at an angle, the individual LEDs show up much more than when they are viewed straight on.

To fix this I tinted the sides of the rings with silver vinyl, the type of vinyl you would get at a sign shop. (1/4" x 11" strips) Silver vinyl is quite thin so 50% to 60% of the light still shines through, but it is diffused much better and the "pearl necklace" refections are all but gone.

The pictures below will give you an idea of how the silver vinyl looks and works...

BTW... you could experiment with different colored or translucent vinyls to get different colors or different looks, like carbon fiber patterned vinyls.

looks great. How sweet would it be to blast some techno and get some crazy lights on the top of the car like in cash cab while dialing your angel eye dimmers from high to low, back and forth. Cops would drop their doughnuts on site and there'd be multiple lane accidents on every interstate you ride on.

AWESOME job, I noticed ur EAS leds dont seem to have the pearl necklace effect, like the orians do. Is that due to the tint that you put on OR the fact that EAS has solved the issue. We the time comes I will upgrade to EXACTLY what youve done. Cold starts on ccfls is gettin me pissed. Again great job, more pics perhaps from further away?

AWESOME job, I noticed ur EAS leds dont seem to have the pearl necklace effect, like the orians do. Is that due to the tint that you put on OR the fact that EAS has solved the issue. We the time comes I will upgrade to EXACTLY what youve done. Cold starts on ccfls is gettin me pissed. Again great job, more pics perhaps from further away?

That's in effect to the ring that we use - it properly diffuses the light for a uniform pattern, compared to the Orion V2s that simply magnify it.

I am so bummed. I ordered these parts and installed them, wiring them up and soldering per your pics. The dimmer function didn't work. Not sure why. Eyes would come on at 1 million candlelight, twist knob.....nothing happens. Wonder if I got a defective rheostat but I doubt it. Only other thing I can think of is that since I have mine kicking on from the interior light it over-rides the rheostat. Hell if I know. I hate doing electronic crap to my car why don't the damn manufacturers or resellers include a damn dimmer and add $20 to the price? GRRR